Hamas has accused the Palestinian Election Committee of distorting the results of a round of municipal voting to make it appear that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party - which came out ahead - swept the poll. Committee head Jamal Shobaki, who released the results, told a news conference on Saturday that Fatah won in 51 of 104 municipalities, and Hamas in 13. The remainder were taken by other factions or coalitions. Thursday's vote was the third of four rounds of municipal elections, and was not necessarily a predictor of parliamentary elections in January because local issues and candidates' clan membership figured heavily. The election committee intentionally avoided announcing that Fatah, led by Abbas, ran unopposed in some areas to make it appear its candidates had trounced Hamas, said Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza. He said, however, that Hamas would not officially challenge the results. "The announcement by the local election committee was biased," Abu Zuhri said. "It was a manoeuvre on the part of the election committee to present the numbers in an indirect way to favour one faction, and we will tell our people the truth."
Fatah - under fire for running a corruption-ridden government - was not expected to make a strong showing in the municipal voting. Hamas, by contrast, has been taking credit for Israel's recent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and was expected to do well.